Organic polymeric materials are characterized by being flexible and transparent, but having very high coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). Inorganic materials provide the advantages of good rigidity and low cost, but they have a problem of fragility. Hence, an organic/inorganic composite material having flexibility, transparency and thermostability is desired. Further, the most efficient way to fabricate the material is to hybridize an organic polymeric material and an inorganic material.
However, the physical properties of the organic polymer and the inorganic material are very different, resulting in the difficulty for direct hybridization. Thus the current hybridizing method for obtaining the organic/inorganic composite material is to combine the organic polymer and the inorganic material at a specific ratio (such as, the amount of the inorganic material added is far lower than the amount of the organic polymer added), after modifying one or both of them.
In the current technology, organic ammonium salts are common modifiers for modifying inorganic clay by intercalation, and disperse the modified inorganic clay into an organic polymer. However, although the modified inorganic clay made by the approach is able to be hybridized with organic polymer, the added amount of about 20 wt % almost approaches the upper limit of the added amount of inorganic clay. As such, the organic/inorganic composite material obtained after hybridization loses its transparency and has high haze. The thermostability also worsens, due to the addition of the modifier.
Hence, it is a critical issue to obtain an organic/inorganic composite material with a good inorganic material arrangement, good thermostability and high transmittance, by hybridizing an organic polymer and an inorganic material, in absence of modifier.